DESPICABLE ME (U)

CRIMINAL mastermind Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) seethes with envy after new villain on the block, Vector (Jason Segel), steals one of the ancient pyramids and replaces the monument with an inflatable. With his reputation on the line, Gru plots to steal the moon using a shrink ray gun from Vector’s laboratory. However, the lair is heavily fortified so Gru adopts three orphaned girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), and cleverly uses the children to breach the defences. By the time Gru has purloined the shrink ray, the curmudgeon has forged a bond with the girls and he must contemplate giving up his life of crime to become a father or send them back to the orphanage.

STAR RATING: ***

EASY A (15)

HARD-working student Olive (Emma Stone) tells a tiny white lie to best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about losing her virginity to a mystery man and Bible-bashing classmate Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears the confession. Initially distressed to be the talking point of the entire school, Olive embraces her new lowly reputation for the good of others. She manufactures a hook-up with classmate Brandon (Dan Byrd) to dispel whispers about him being gay and claims to have bedded an overweight boy who fears he will never get a girlfriend. Events quickly spiral out of control and as friends turn against her, Olive finds a solitary ally in her old school crush, Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley).

STAR RATING: ****

GAINSBOURG (15)

JOANN Sfar directs Eric Elmosnino as one of France’s biggest pop stars who started out as Lucien Ginsburg, a young Jewish lad growing up in occupied Paris, becoming the lover of beautiful women and generally outraging the establishment with songs like Je t’aime and a reggae version of the Marseillaise. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Tuesday and Thursday.

STAR RATING: ***

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA’HOOLE (PG)

IMPRESSIONABLE young barn owl Soren (Jim Sturgess) and his chick sister Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria) hang on the every word of their father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving), when he tells them about the legendary guardians who have protected their feathered kind for generations. Soren’s brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) dismisses such talk because no-one has ever seen the guardians. During an attempt to learn to fly, Soren and Kludd are captured by sentry owls under the control of the villainous Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and his mate, Nyra (Helen Mirren). They are putting together an army to overthrow the guardians. Soren escapes with a little elf owl called Gylfie (Emily Barclay) and they make haste to find the guardians.

STAR RATING: ***

RAMONA AND BEEZUS (U)

LIGHT-hearted yarn for audiences who haven’t reached double digits yet, based on the best-selling books by Beverly Cleary, about a little girl with a big imagination who always seems to land herself in trouble. Joey King and Selena Gomez play mischievous nine-year-old tyke Ramona and her 15-year-old sister Beezus, whose antics bring a smile to the faces of the residents of Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon.

STAR RATING: **

RED (12A)

FORMER Black Ops agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) has retired from active duty and now carves out a mundane existence in suburbia, where the highlight of his day is flirting on the phone with customer services agent Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). When a gun-toting death squad razes his home, Frank goes on the run with Sarah and heads to Louisiana to reunite with old friend Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), then on to a secret bunker to re-enlist conspiracy theorist Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich). As the body count rises, the former agents and Sarah add sniper Victoria (Helen Mirren) to their ranks and unravel the mystery of an old mission in Guatemala.

STAR RATING: ***

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (12A)

CENTRAL protagonist Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a computer nerd whose lack of social skills become apparent as he is deservedly dumped by his girlfriend (Rooney Mara). In revenge, Mark creates a crude website called facemash.com which brings the nerd to the attention of Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer), who want Mark to program their internal social networking site called HarvardConnection. Soon after, Mark approaches friends Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Dustin Moskovitz (Joseph Mazzello) and Chris Hughes (Patrick Mapel) with an almost identical idea. Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the entrepreneur behind Napster, becomes involved and offers Mark his advice: “Drop the ‘The’. Just Facebook. It’s cleaner.”

STAR RATING: ***

TAMARA DREWE (15)

STEPHEN Frears brings Posy Simmonds’ comic strip from The Guardian to life with Gemma Arterton in the title role. Once unbearably shy and awkward, Tamara is now a glamorous newspaper columnist who sets off all manner of gossip among the locals when she returns to the idyllic rural village of her childhood. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from Friday-Monday.

STAR RATING: ***

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (12A)

GORDON Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from prison in 2008. He emerges into a world that is firmly controlled by the financial community and teetering on the brink of ruin. Gordon finds new success with a best-selling book and tour. In the audience is ambitious trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), who is the boyfriend of Gordon’s estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan).

STAR RATING: ***